Utilities still have a long way to go to construct coherent solar strategies

Utilities still have a long way to go to construct coherent solar strategies

A new study suggests that utilities recognize they don’t have coherent policies for solar programs but are having difficulties creating them.

They say the first step to solving a problem is recognizing you have one. In the case of utilities’ often haphazard policies toward distributed generation resources like solar, however, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

At least that’s what the latest research E Source suggests. The marketing firm released its initial Utility DER Strategy Benchmark report, and it is highly critical of utilities’ approaches to creating polices to engage emerging electricity-generation technologies.

“None of the utilities included in the study believe they currently have a robust and integrated distributed energy strategy,” says Alanya Schofield, senior director of strategy, consulting, and products at E Source. “About two-thirds of utilities are developing and implementing narrow and disjointed efforts, but they’re hampered by the lack of a clearly defined DER strategy, internal resistance to change, and limited dedicated resources.”

While most utilities anticipate an ever-increasing amount of distributed generation coming online in the next seven years, they are still not making progress on strategies, Schofield added.